AdminStudio 9.0 Release Notes

Transcription

1 AdminStudio 9.0 Release Notes 29 August 2008 Contents Introduction...2 Components...2 Standard Edition... 2 Professional Edition... 3 Enterprise Edition... 3 Virtualization Pack for Enterprise Edition... 3 New Features...4 Standard, Professional, and Enterprise Editions... 4 Repackager Support for Double-Byte Character Systems... 4 InstallShield 2009 Functionality... 4 Enterprise Edition... 6 OS Security Patch Wizard... 6 Virtualization Pack for Enterprise Edition... 6 Pre-Conversion Evaluation for Application Virtualization... 6 Virtual Application Management... 6 Virtual Application Suiting... 7 Virtual Application Batch Conversion... 7 Citrix XenApp Virtualization Engine Support... 7 VMware ThinApp Support, Including AppLink and AppSync Support... 7 System Requirements...8 AdminStudio Client Tool Machine... 8 Application Catalog Database Server... 8 AdminStudio Web Server...9 Software Repository Server Known Issues...10 AdminStudio 9.0 Release Notes (29 August 2008) 1

2 Introduction Introduction With AdminStudio 9.0, Acresso delivers to organizations a smoother, more feature-rich solution to help ensure application readiness, while also providing new time and effort-saving functionality that enables organizations to prepare for a Vista OS migration and/or application virtualization migrations. AdminStudio 9.0 provides support for leading application virtualization technologies including Citrix XenApp (formerly known as Citrix Presentation Server ) and VMware ThinApp (formerly Thinstall Virtualization Suite ). AdminStudio 9.0's expanded application virtualization toolkit includes a new a Pre-Conversion Evaluation functionality that allows the proactive testing of applications for virtualization compatibility before proceeding with conversion. This feature also incorporates an extensible test framework that enables you to write your own XML-based custom rules to detect and remediate issues that could prevent the successful creation of a reliable virtual package. Additional application virtualization features in AdminStudio 9.0 include batch conversion, virtual application suiting, and the ability to import virtual packages into the Application Catalog and the Software Repository. AdminStudio 9.0 InstallShield Editor also includes the features of the InstallShield 2009 release. Components AdminStudio 9.0 is available in Standard, Professional, and Enterprise Editions. Standard Edition Professional Edition Enterprise Edition Virtualization Pack for Enterprise Edition Standard Edition AdminStudio 9.0 Standard Edition includes the following components: Repackager Distribution Wizard FLEXwrap InstallShield 2009 Tuner Application Isolation Wizard Configuration Manager Web Console (Limited) AdminStudio 9.0 Release Notes (29 August 2008) 2

3 Components Professional Edition AdminStudio 9.0 Professional Edition includes all of the Standard Edition components plus the following additional components: ConflictSolver Application Manager OS Snapshot Wizard QualityMonitor Predeployment Test Configuration Manager Web Console (Full) Enterprise Edition AdminStudio 9.0 Enterprise Edition includes all of the Professional Edition components plus the following additional components: PackageExpert OS Security Patch Wizard Job Manager Report Center Software Repository Security Console Virtualization Pack for Enterprise Edition The Virtualization Pack provides Citrix and ThinApp virtualization support as add-on features to the Enterprise Edition. The following additional components are available: Citrix Assistant ThinApp Assistant Windows Installer Converter AdminStudio 9.0 Release Notes (29 August 2008) 3

4 New Features New Features AdminStudio 9.0 includes the following new features: Standard, Professional, and Enterprise Editions Repackager Support for Double-Byte Character Systems InstallShield 2009 Functionality Enterprise Edition OS Security Patch Wizard Virtualization Pack for Enterprise Edition Pre-Conversion Evaluation for Application Virtualization Virtual Application Management Virtual Application Suiting Virtual Application Batch Conversion Citrix XenApp Virtualization Engine Support VMware ThinApp Support, Including AppLink and AppSync Support Standard, Professional, and Enterprise Editions AdminStudio 9.0 Standard, Professional, and Enterprise Editions include the following new features. Repackager Support for Double-Byte Character Systems Properly capturing and presenting double-byte characters such as Japanese, Korean or Arabic is becoming increasingly important to worldwide organizations, including AdminStudio's Asia-Pacific based customers. AdminStudio Repackager is now enhanced to ensure that the Repackager will support double-byte character systems. InstallShield 2009 Functionality AdminStudio 9.0 InstallShield Editor includes the following features of the InstallShield 2009 release: Ability to associate InstallShield prerequisites with features InstallShield now enables you to associate InstallShield prerequisites with one or more features. This new type of InstallShield prerequisite is called a feature prerequisite. It is installed if a feature that contains the prerequisite is installed and if the prerequisite is not already installed on the system. Including InstallShield prerequisites in your project enables you to chain multiple installations together, bypassing the Windows Installer limitation that permits only one Execute sequence to be run at a time. If any package in the chain fails, any previous packages in the chain will also be rolled back. AdminStudio 9.0 Release Notes (29 August 2008) 4

5 New Features Windows Installer 4.5 support You can use InstallShield to create Windows Installer packages that leverage the functionality in Windows Installer 4.5. Installation of multiple packages using transaction processing InstallShield lets you add Windows Installer packages to Basic MSI, InstallScript MSI, and Web projects as chained.msi packages. If your Basic MSI, InstallScript MSI, or Web installation includes chained.msi packages and Windows Installer 4.5 is present on the target system, the Windows Installer installs the multiple packages using transaction processing. Support for using the InstallScript Engine as an embedded user interface for InstallScript MSI installations For InstallScript MSI projects, you now have the option to use the InstallScript engine as an embedded custom user interface (UI) handler, rather than as an external custom UI handler, as it has traditionally been used. Shared component patching InstallShield includes support for the new shared component patching feature that is available with Windows Installer 4.5. Support for superseding components Use the new Uninstall Superseded Component setting in the Components view to specify how you want Windows Installer 4.5 to handle the selected component during installation of a superseding patch under certain conditions. Support for running a custom action only during patch uninstallation Use the new Run During Patch Uninstall setting for a custom action to indicate whether Windows Installer should run the selected custom action only when a patch is being uninstalled. Visual Studio 2008 support InstallShield is now integrated with Visual Studio NET Framework 3.5 support InstallShield now includes several new.net-related InstallShield prerequisites that you can add to Basic MSI, InstallScript MSI, and Web projects. InstallShield now supports the option to either install or include a requirement to install the.net Framework 3.5 and the.net Compact Framework 3.5 in Windows Installer installations. Managed-code custom action support InstallShield 2009 enables you to easily add managed-code custom actions to Basic MSI, InstallScript MSI, and Merge Module projects without manually writing code. Installing multiple product instances Using InstallShield, you can create Windows Installer packages that have the ability to install multiple instances of the same product on the same machine. Hebrew and Arabic language support You can now use InstallShield to present installation text and buttons in Hebrew and Arabic. Ability to build unicode versions of the setup.exe and update.exe bootstrappers InstallShield now enables you to specify whether you want to build a Unicode version or an ANSI version of the setup.exe setup launcher for a Basic MSI or Web project, allowing you to correctly display text in double-byte locales. Previously, if your Basic MSI or Web project included a setup launcher, InstallShield always built an ANSI version; it did not include support for building a Unicode version. Four InstallShield MSI tools Four new InstallShield MSI tools save you time and effort by providing a user interface for common troubleshooting tasks. InstallShield MSI Diff lets you easily compare two MSI, MSM, PCP, or MSP database files or two InstallShield project files. A color-coded display clearly shows what changes have been made to the files. InstallShield MSI Query helps you ensure the accuracy of SQL statements by testing them before they run in the build script. It saves you time by displaying a direct, visual representation of the success of your code. AdminStudio 9.0 Release Notes (29 August 2008) 5

6 New Features InstallShield MSI Sleuth eliminates hours of tedious research by letting you run a database query to identify MSI packages against third-party installers. It makes it easy to detect legacy setups so that they can be replaced with industry-standard MSI packages. InstallShield MSI Grep can run searches of MSI and MSM files to locate specific elements within the database. It saves you time by eliminating the manual scrutinization of database lines to locate data. Enterprise Edition AdminStudio 9.0 Enterprise Edition includes the following new feature. OS Security Patch Wizard OS Security Patch Wizard is a new AdminStudio tool that is used to import Microsoft operating system patch information into the Application Catalog. You can then use ConflictSolver to analyze the full impact of installing these patches on user machines, enabling you to determine the level of testing you need to perform before distributing a Microsoft OS patch throughout your enterprise. Virtualization Pack for Enterprise Edition AdminStudio 9.0 Virtualization Pack for Enterprise Edition includes the following new features: Pre-Conversion Evaluation for Application Virtualization AdminStudio 9.0 includes a new a Pre-Conversion Evaluation feature to test applications for virtualization compatibility before proceeding with conversion. This feature enables you to identify which packages are good candidates for virtualization and to evaluate at a high level how easily a virtualization solution could be adopted. When performing a pre-conversion evaluation, Windows Installer Converter applies a set of pre-defined Acresso Best Practice rules to evaluate packages. However, Windows Installer Converter also incorporates an extensible test framework that enables you to write your own XML-based custom rules to detect and remediate issues that could prevent the successful creation of a virtual package. As you gain experience in virtualization conversion, you can build additional rules to address any issues that you have found, making the virtualization experience in the future even more streamlined for your organization. Acresso is preparing a community Web site that will allow for the sharing and support of application and technology specific rules. Virtual Application Management In AdminStudio 9.0, you can import Citrix XenApp and VMware ThinApp virtual packages into the Application Catalog and the Software Repository, providing packagers with a single, clear interface to manage both traditional and virtual packages. Virtual packages are self-contained entities which ordinarily cannot be modified after they are created. By importing a virtual package into the Application Catalog and associating it with its source Windows Installer package, you have the convenience of being able to easily locate the virtual package s originating Windows Installer package, modify the original Windows Installer package, and then regenerate the virtual package without having to go through the hassle of recapturing it every time. AdminStudio 9.0 Release Notes (29 August 2008) 6

7 New Features Virtual Application Suiting In AdminStudio 9.0, you can convert multiple Windows Installer packages into one virtual application. This virtual application suiting feature enables a virtual application to interact with a secondary application within its own virtual container, increasing its isolation from the physical system. By increasing the effective isolation of a virtual application, you minimize the risks to deployment. This feature was developed to address an inherent shortcoming of application virtualization: the lack of interoperability between virtual containers. Virtual Application Batch Conversion You can now test and convert your entire existing application portfolio of MSIs into individual virtual packages. Citrix XenApp Virtualization Engine Support AdminStudio 9.0 includes support for Citrix XenApp 4.5.1, the latest version of the Citrix application virtualization engine. VMware ThinApp Support, Including AppLink and AppSync Support AdminStudio 9.0 includes support for VMware ThinApp 4.x, including its AppLink and AppSync features. AppLink (Application Link) Enables you to configure relationships between ThinApp applications that work together. You can use the AppLink feature to link runtime components to applications, link add-ons and plug-ins to applications, and link packaged applications to service packs. AppSync (Application Sync) Enables you to automatically keep deployed ThinApp applications up-to-date. When an application starts up, AppSync can query a Web server to see if an updated version of the package is available. If an update is available, the differences between the existing package and the new package will be downloaded and used to construct an updated version of the package. You can use the AppSync feature to distribute runtime components separately from the applications that use them, and to apply layered service packs to your applications. AdminStudio 9.0 Release Notes (29 August 2008) 7

8 System Requirements System Requirements This section lists the requirements for AdminStudio client tool machines, enterprise tool machines, and database servers. AdminStudio Client Tool Machine The recommended system configuration for a machine running the AdminStudio client tools is: Item Processor RAM Hard Disk Display Operating System Browser Privileges Description 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or greater 256 MB or greater (512 MB preferred) 1.1 GB Designed for XGA at 1024 x 768 resolution or higher Windows XP (SP1 or later is recommended), Windows Vista, Windows 2000 SP3 or later, or Windows Server. Predeployment Test and Configuration Manager Web Console require Microsoft IIS 5 or later. Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 or later Administrative privileges on the system Application Catalog Database Server The recommended system configuration for a database server to store AdminStudio application catalog databases is: Item Processor RAM Hard Disk Space Operating System Description 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or greater 512 MB or greater (1 GB preferred) 80 GB or greater Windows 2003 Server or Windows 2000 Server or Advanced Server (with the latest Service Pack) AdminStudio 9.0 Release Notes (29 August 2008) 8

9 System Requirements Item Database Software Description AdminStudio supports SQL Server and Oracle databases: SQL Server 2000 (with the latest Service Pack) is the minimum requirement, but SQL Server 2005 or later is highly recommended. SQL Server must be installed with case-insensitive dictionary sort order and ISO character set (use sp_helpsort T-SQL command for more information). Oracle 9i or later AdminStudio Web Server The recommended system configuration for a machine running the AdminStudio Enterprise tools (Security Console, Report Center, Job Manager) is: Item Processor RAM Hard Disk Space Operating System Description 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or greater 512 MB or greater (1 GB preferred) 30 GB or greater Windows 2003 Server or Windows 2000 Server or Advanced Server (with the latest Service Pack) IIS IIS 5.0 or IIS 6.0.NET.NET Framework 2.0 (including ASP.NET 2.0 registered with IIS) MSXML MSXML 4.0 Oracle Client Running on a Domain Controller If you are connecting to an Oracle database, the Web Server needs to have the Oracle client installed. The Oracle Client version can be either 9i or 10g, depending upon the database server that is going to be used. If running on a domain controller, you will have to implement one of the procedures described in the Microsoft Developer Network topic Running ASP.NET on a Domain Controller, available at: AdminStudio 9.0 Release Notes (29 August 2008) 9

10 Known Issues Software Repository Server The recommended system configuration for the machine that stores the Software Repository files is: Item Processor RAM Hard Disk Space Operating System Description 512 MHz or greater 512 MB or greater 60 GB or greater Windows 2003 Server or Windows 2000 Server or Advanced Server (with the latest Service Pack) Known Issues For a complete list of known issues that pertain to the AdminStudio 9.0 release, see the Acresso Support Knowledge Base. AdminStudio 9.0 Release Notes (29 August 2008) 10